


Sink or Swim

by wonderlandstreasurechest



Category: Power Rangers, Power Rangers Dino Thunder
Genre: Conquering Fears - Freeform, Day At The Beach, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-30
Updated: 2014-06-30
Packaged: 2018-02-06 22:24:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,852
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1874667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wonderlandstreasurechest/pseuds/wonderlandstreasurechest
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Conner doesn’t want to go to the beach, but Kira and Ethan can be pretty convincing when they want to be. Besides, a deal’s a deal.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sink or Swim

“Are we there yet?”

“Do you do that because you know how annoying it is, or because you honestly think someone has to ask that _every time_ we drive somewhere?”

“Play nice boys,” Kira chided from the back seat of Conner’s car, as he and Ethan bickered in the front seat. She pulled the map from the mountain of beach gear they’d shoved in the back seat with her. “We’ll be there soon, Ethe.”

“Good,” He sighed, dramatically. “I’m going crazy in this heat.”

“Yeah,” Conner muttered. “You know, we could always just bail and grab food or something.”

“We have food,” Kira pointed out, drumming on the lid of her dad’s oversized cooler. “And we have towels, and sunscreen, and a ridiculous umbrella—”

“Hey!” Ethan interrupted, defensively. “That’s my mom’s favorite umbrella you’re insulting.”

“Whatever. It’s ridiculous and you know it.” She glanced over at the umbrella, in all its oversized, multi-colored glory and smiled. “The point is, that there is absolutely no reason that you should pull over this car for anything at all. We are going to the beach and that is final.”

Conner muttered something about it being his car and his choice under his breath, but he kept on track towards the shoreline. He pulled into the public access parking lot, still muttering. Kira and Ethan sprang from the car as soon as it stopped moving.

It was hardly a long drive to the beach; less than a half hour to a good spot, but this day was hotter than most and the faux-leather seats of Conner’s car were scalding at best. Happy to be out in the breeze, Ethan began unpacking, while Kira set into the sure to be difficult task of prying Conner from the driver’s seat.

“Come on, we came all the way out here and you’re not even going to get out?” She coaxed, holding his door open so he couldn’t lock himself in.

“What if I just came back for you guys in a couple hours?”

“Fat chance,” She folded her arms across her chest. “Today is all about you, so _you_ better get out here and join us.”

“No.”

“Fine.”

“Fine?” He looked up at her, skeptically. In all his many, many arguments with Kira, never once had she backed down this easily. Something was up and he knew it.

“Yeah, it’s fine,” Kira answered, sounding suddenly disinterested. “I guess you just won’t get your surprise is all.”

“It’s a good surprise, too, bro,” Ethan added, the umbrella under one arm and the cooler under the other.

“What kind of surprise?” Conner asked, slowly. “Animal, vegetable or mineral?”

“None of the above, but it doesn’t really matter, right?” She moved to pull a stack of towels and a large tote bag from the back seat. “Guess we’ll see you in a couple hours. Come on, Ethan. Let’s get a spot by those girls in bikinis playing beach volleyball.”

“You know all of my weaknesses, don’t you?” Conner surrendered, unbuckling and pulling the remaining of their stuff from the back seat.

The trio made their way towards the water and spread out their towels. Aside from the one game of volleyball, the beach was nearly empty. It wasn’t entirely surprising for midday on a Tuesday in late June, but the lack of people only served to make the sound of the waves seem louder. Conner turned on the portable radio to try to drown it out, but to no avail.

“Heads up,” Kira said, tossing a bottle of sunscreen to Ethan, who fumbled with it a bit before solidly catching it. “You’re next, McKnight.”

“No, thanks,” Conner said, pulling his tank top over his head and throwing in a bundle onto his towel before stretching out himself. “I’m going to try to get a tan. I’m thinking I could totally pull of the bronze god look.”

“Dude,” Ethan said, tossing the bottle to him anyway. It landed squarely on his stomach causing him to recoil and shoot Ethan a nasty look. “You think you can pull off the lobster look? Or how about the skin cancer look?”

“Whatever.” He grudgingly applied the lotion, while Kira started rummaging through the tote bag for something. She pulled a large, plastic ring out and began blowing air into it. “That better not be my surprise.”

“Its part one,” Ethan smiled, knowingly. He was met with Conner’s glare. “What? I thought you’d like it! It’s red!”

“You know what else is red?” Conner asked. “Rashes, fire ants, the pen Dr. O uses to put F’s on my homework…”

“Okay, but do any of those things float?” Kira asked tossing the tube at him which he caught and set aside.

“No, and neither do I, so let’s drop it, okay?”

After much reasoning on Ethan’s part, and much threatening on Kira’s, Conner finally took the inner-tube from the towel where it had come to rest and carried it under his arm. He dragged his feet through the hot sand, to the water’s edge where he stopped abruptly.

“I don’t know if this is such a good idea, guys,” He said, jumping back as the tide washed over his toes. The water was much colder than he anticipated it being, but neither of his friends seemed fazed in the slightest. In fact, they only waded out further, until they were both waist deep in the water and looking back at him expectantly.

“It’s not that cold once you get used to it,” Kira promised. “Just put the tube on and get out here.”

Conner hesitantly stepped out further, pulling the ring up around his waist. He felt ridiculous, like an oversized child. When the water came midway up his calves, he stopped again.

“I can’t do this, guys.”

“Sure you can,” Ethan said, supportively.

“You know that saying,” Conner asked, eyeing the swell of the waves out past where Kira and Ethan stood. “Sink or swim?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m almost one-hundred percent sure I’m going to sink.”

“We aren’t going to let you sink.” Kira told him, but Conner turned around anyway.

“If anyone wants to remind me why I agreed to this, I’ll be making a sand castle or something.”

“Conner McKnight, you turn around this instant.” Kira shouted at him with enough conviction to actually make him do it. He looked back at her and Ethan who were wearing dual expressions of seriousness. “You’re going to get out here right now because you made a promise. Ethan went on that roller-coaster and I went to that petting zoo with the biting goats and neither of us complained. Well, neither of us complained _that much_ , anyway. The point is, it’s your turn, and I’m not letting you leave this beach until you get your head wet.”

“Besides,” Ethan added. “If you don’t get in the water, the girls on the beach are totally going to know that you’re a big chicken who’s afraid of a little water.”

“Fine,” Conner said, resentfully making his way out to his friends. He _had_ promised to do this in a pact the trio had made on prom night to face their fears this summer, but that didn’t make it any easier in practice. “But I’m not doing it for you guys because you guys are jerks. I’m doing this for the girls.”

Kira rolled her eyes.

He found that matching their distance wasn’t so bad; it didn’t even reach his waist, but part of him knew that he wasn’t done yet. Conner found a hand in each of his as he was led out deeper. Visions of sharks and jellyfish swam through his mind as the water crept above his bellybutton.

“You’re doing great,” Kira smiled, seeming to know exactly what he was thinking. “We’re going to let go, okay? Then you can pick up your feet.”

He gripped tightly at the sides of his inner-tube-- his red plastic sanctuary-- and shifted his weight so he was no longer touching the sand beneath his feet. It lasted all of three seconds before a wave pushed him closer to shore and he slammed his feet back down in protest to the tide. “There,” he said, pulling the ring over his head. “I did it, now let’s go back to shore.”

“Not yet,” Kira said. “Underwater. Ten seconds. That was the deal.”

“She’s right, you know,” Ethan agreed. “We shook on it and everything.”

“I know what the deal was,” He sighed. “But, can you guys, um, hold my hands again?”

Ethan tried his best to hold in a snicker, but it didn’t work. Kira splashed him.

“What? It’s funny! Mighty McKnight needs his hands held.” This earned him a second splash.

“I remember someone needing a hand to hold on The Man Maker,” Kira reminded him as she remembered the bone crushing grip with which Ethan had squeezed her hand when the roller-coaster went upside down.

“That was different.”

“Not a word of this,” Conner said, shoving the inner-tube at Ethan, who was wiping the salt water from his face. He held out his hands. “To anyone. Ever.”

Once he had a hand in each of his again, Conner took a deep breath in and threw his face into the water. He counted ten Mississippi’s before pulling his head out, as though the water were on fire. He sputtered for breath, beads of salt water running down his face and into his mouth and making him spit in disgust.

“Now I did it,” He declared, running a hand back through his now wet hair. Although it had hardly been ten seconds, he was still gasping for air. “Done, right?”

“Technically, he did,” Ethan said, smirking to Kira. “So, what do you think? Did he earn his surprise?”

“I think so,” She smirked back.

“Race you to the towels!” Ethan tore past Conner, shoving the tube back at him and racing for the shore. Kira and Conner exchanged competitive looks before they ran after him. It was a tight race between Ethan’s head start and Conner’s longer legs, but in the end it was too close to call.

“Okay,” Conner said, panting from the run. “Surprise time. I earned it.”

Kira sat down, pulling her tote into her lap. “One for Conner,” She said throwing a red wad of fabric into Conner’s lap, before tossing a blue wad at Ethan. “One for Ethan, and one for me.” She finished by pulling something yellow from the bag for herself.

Conner unfolded his surprise as Kira and Ethan watched him expectantly. It was a t-shirt that read ‘I (Heart) Swimming’. He looked back at them with some amusement as they held theirs up for him to read. Ethan’s professed his love of coasters, while Kira’s claimed that she loved goats.

“I figured that it’d be nice to have something to show for putting ourselves through hell.” Kira explained.

“No lie,” Ethan laughed.

“Thanks, guys,” Conner said, slipping his shirt on and genuinely smiling for the first time since they’d left for the beach this morning. “Now what was that you said earlier about us having food?”


End file.
